The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 eBook

among men, women, animals, inanimate things, houses,
grief, incredulousness, vows and regulations, actions
with expectation (of good result), diverse acts of
public charity, the rites in respect of Swaha salutations,
rites of Swadha and Vashat, officiating at the sacrifices
of others, imparting of instruction, performance of
sacrifices, study, making of gifts, acceptance of gifts,
rites of expiation, auspicious acts, the wish to have
this and that, affection generated by the merits of
the object for which or whom it is felt, treachery,
deception, disrespect and respect, theft, killing,
desire of concealment, vexation, wakefulness, ostentation,
haughtiness, attachment, devotion, contentment, exultation,
gambling, indulgence in scandal, all relations arising
out of women, attachment to dancing, instrumental music
and songs—­all these qualities, ye learned
Brahmanas, have been said to belong to Passion.
Those men on Earth who meditate on the past, present,
and the future, who are devoted to the aggregate of
three, viz., Religion, Wealth, and Pleasure,
who acting from impulse of desire, exult on attaining
to affluence in respect of every desire, are said to
be enveloped by Passion. These men have downward
courses. Repeatedly reborn in this world, they
give themselves up to pleasure. They covet what
belongs to this world as also all those fruit, that
belong to the world hereafter. They make gifts,
accept gifts, offer oblations to the Pitris, and pour
libations on the sacrificial fire. The qualities
of Passion have (thus) been declared to you in their
variety. The course of conduct also to which
it leads has been properly described to you. The
man who always understands these qualities, succeeds
in always freeing himself from all of them which appertain
to Passion.’”

SECTION XXXVIII

“Brahmana said, ’I shall, after this discourse
to you on that excellent quality which is the third
(in the order of our enumeration). It is beneficial
to all creatures in the world, and unblamable, and
constitutes the conduct of those that are good.
Joy, satisfaction, nobility, enlightenment, and happiness,
absence of stinginess (or liberality), absence of
fear, contentment, disposition for faith, forgiveness,
courage, abstention from injuring any creature, equability,
truth, straightforwardness, absence of wrath, absence
of malice, purity, cleverness, prowess, (these appertain
to the quality of Goodness). He who is devoted
to the duty of Yoga, regarding knowledge to be vain,
conduct to be vain, service to be vain, and mode of
life to be vain, attains to what is highest in the
world hereafter. Freedom from the idea of meum,
freedom from egoism, freedom from expectations, looking
on all with an equal eye, and freedom from desire,—­these
constitute the eternal religion of the good.
Confidence, modesty, forgiveness, renunciation, purity,
absence of laziness, absence of cruelty, absence of